Question 1. What are different types of Peer to Peer architectures? Explain in detail.

Answer 1 Peer-to-peer systems often implement an abstract overlay network, built at Application Layer, on top of the native or physical network topology. Such overlays are used for indexing and peer discovery and make the P2P system independent from the physical network topology. Content is typically exchanged directly over the underlying Internet Protocol (IP) network. Anonymous peer-to-peer systems are an exception, and implement extra routing layers to obscure the identity of the source or destination of queries. Peer to Peer architecture:A peer-to-peer networks architecture is generally formed dynamically by an ad-hoc type of addition of nodes, meaning the loss of a certain node does not have a significant impact on the rest of the network. This aspect of peer-to-peer networks gives the system the ability to easily scale to any size that may be need for a certain application. Regarding different types of peer-to-peer architecture, there are generally two major types, structured and unstructured. These two types of networks also contain even more specific underlying types of networks. Unstructured Architecture:To be considered an unstructured peer-to-peer network, the network must not use any algorithm for organization or optimization of the network .For unstructured peer-to-peer networks there are three different models which include pure peer-to-peer networks, hybrid peer-to-peer networks, and centralized peer-to-peer networks. In a pure peer-to-peer network, or sometimes called a purely decentralized network, all nodes are of equal ability meaning that there are no nodes that have any special infrastructure function that could affect the network. A great example of a popular purely decentralized peer-to-peer network is the Gnutella network. The main purpose of the Gnutella network is for that of a file sharing system. The Gnutella network, like many other peer-to-peer networks uses a virtual overlay network with its own routing layers, allowing the peers of the network to share files on their machine to all other peers connected to the network. The second type of unstructured peer-to-peer networks is called the hybrid peer-to-peer network. In this type of network, infrastructure nodes are allowed to exist and are often a type of central directory server. All clients connected to the network must connect to one of these servers. The central server maintains a table of registered user connection information (IP address, connection bandwidth etc.) and a table listing the files that each user holds and shares in the network, along with metadata descriptions of the files(e.g. filename, time of creation, etc.) The final type of unstructured peer-to-peer network is called a centralized peer-to-peer network. These centralized peer-to-peer networks are very similar to the pure peer-to-peer networks except for the added concept of supernodes. These supernodes are nodes that are dynamically assigned the task of servicing a small subpart of the peer network by indexing and caching files contained therein. Structured Architecture:Structured peer-to-peer networks generally hold the traits of using some type of algorithm for organization or optimization of the network. Structured peer-to-peer networks use some type of global protocol to ensure that any node in the network can proficiently route a search to some peer that has a desired file. By far the most popular type of structured peer-to-peer network is the distributed hash table or DHT. Distributed hash tables are a class of decentralized distributed systems that provide a lookup service similar to that of a hash table. Pairs, key and value, are stored in the distributed has table and any connected node can proficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key .Maintaining the mapping from keys to values is the responsibility of each of the nodes in the network. This is done in such a way that a change to the set of peers causes a negligible amount of disruption to the rest of the network. The most popular example of a network using a distributed hash table is Bit Torrents distributed tracker.

Question 2 Name different types of telecommunication processors? Name different network layers in OSI Model. Answer 2 TELECOMMUNICATION PROCESSORS Telecommunications processors such as modems, multiplexers, bridges, front-end processors, and other devices perform a variety of support functions between the terminals and computers in a telecommunications network. Let's take a look at some of these devices and their functions. Modems. Modems are the most common type of communications processor. They convert the digital signals from a computer or transmission terminal at one end of a communications link into analog frequencies, which can be transmitted over ordinary telephone lines. A modem at the other end of the communications line converts the transmitted data back into digital form at a receiving terminal. This process is known as modulation and demodulation, and the word modem is a combined abbreviation of those two words. Modems come in several forms, including small stand-alone units, plug-in circuit boards, and micro electric modem chips. Many modems also support a variety of telecommunications interface functions, such as transmission error control, automatic dialing and answering, and a faxing capability. Modems are used because ordinary telephone networks were primarily designed to handle continuous analog signals (electromagnetic frequencies), such as those generated by the human, voice over the telephone. Since data from computers are in digital form (voltage pulses), devices are necessary to convert digital signals into appropriate analog transmission frequencies and vice versa. However, digital communications networks that transmit only digital signals and do not need analog/digital conversion are becoming commonplace. Since most modems also perform a variety of telecommunications support functions, modems may still be needed in digital networks. Multiplexers. A multiplexer is a communications processor that allows a single communications channel to carry simultaneous data transmissions from many terminals. Thus, a single communications line can be shared by several terminals. Typically, a multiplexer merges the transmissions of several terminals at one end of a communications channel, while a similar unit separates the individual transmissions at the receiving end. This is accomplished in two basic ways. In frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a multiplexer effectively divides a high-speed channel into multiple slow speed channels. In time division multiplexing (TDM), the multiplexer divides the time each terminal can use high-speed line into very short time slots, or time frames. The most advanced and popular type of multiplexer is the statistical time division multiplexer, most commonly referred to as a statistical multiplexer. Instead of giving all terminals equal time slots, it dynamically allocates time slots only to active terminals according to priorities assigned by a telecommunications manager. Internetwork Processors. As we have previously mentioned, many local area networks are interconnected by internetwork processors such as bridges, routers, hubs, or gateways to other LANs or wide area networks. A bridge is a communications processor that connects two similar LANs, that is, LANs based on the same network standards or protocols. A router is a communications processor that connects LANs to networks based on different protocols. A hub is a port switching communications processor. Advanced versions of hubs provide automatic switching among connections called ports for shares access to a network's resources.

LAN workstations, servers, printers, and other LAN resources are connected to ports, as are bridges and routers provided by the hub to other LANs and WANs. Networks that use different communications architectures are interconnected by using a communications processor called a gateway. All these devices are essential to providing connectivity and easy access between the multiple LANs within an organization and the wide area networks communications channel. In many cases, star networks take the form of hierarchical networks. In hierarchical networks, a large headquarters computer at the top of the company's hierarchy is connected to medium-size computers at the divisional level, which are connected to small computers at the departmental or work group level. A variation of the ring network is the mesh network. This uses direct communications lines to connect some or all of the computers in the ring to each other. Another variation is the tree network, which joins several bus networks together. In most cases, distributed processing systems use a combination of star, ring, and bus approaches. Obviously, the star network is more centralized, while ring and bus networks have a more decentralized approach. However, this is not always the case. For example, the central computer in a star configuration may be acting only as a switch, or message-switching computer, that handles the data communications between autonomous local computers. Star, ring, and bus networks differ in their performances, reliabilities, and costs. A pure star network is considered less reliable than a ring network, since the other computers in the star are heavily dependent on the central host computer. If it fails, there is no backup processing and communications capability, and the local computers will be cut off from the corporate headquarters and from each other. Therefore, it is essential that the host computer be highly reliable. Having some type of multiprocessor architecture to provide a fault tolerant capability is a common solution. Star network variations are common because they can support the chain-of-command and hierarchical structures of most organizations. Ring and bus networks are most common in local area networks. Ring networks are considered more reliable and less costly for the type of communications in such networks. If one computer in the ring goes down, the other computers can continue to process their own work as well as to communicate with each other. NETWORK LAYERS IN OSI MODEL The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model has seven layers. This article describes and explains them, beginning with the 'lowest' in the hierarchy (the physical) and proceeding to the 'highest' (the application). The layers are stacked this way: Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data Link Physical PHYSICAL LAYER The physical layer, the lowest layer of the OSI model, is concerned with the transmission and reception of the unstructured raw bit stream over a physical medium. It describes the electrical/optical, mechanical, and functional interfaces to the physical medium, and carries the signals for all of the higher layers. It provides:

Data encoding: modifies the simple digital signal pattern (1s and 0s) used by the PC to better accommodate the characteristics of the physical medium, and to aid in bit and frame synchronization. It determines:

What signal state represents a binary 1 How the receiving station knows when a "bit-time" starts How the receiving station delimits a frame Physical medium attachment, accommodating various possibilities in the medium: Will an external transceiver (MAU) be used to connect to the medium? How many pins do the connectors have and what is each pin used for? Transmission technique: determines whether the encoded bits will be transmitted by baseband (digital) or broadband (analog) signaling. Physical medium transmission: transmits bits as electrical or optical signals appropriate for the physical medium, and determines: What physical medium options can be used How many volts/db should be used to represent a given signal state, using a given physical medium

DATA LINK LAYER The data link layer provides error-free transfer of data frames from one node to another over the physical layer, allowing layers above it to assume virtually error-free transmission over the link. To do this, the data link layer provides: Link establishment and termination: establishes and terminates the logical link between two nodes. Frame traffic control: tells the transmitting node to "back-off" when no frame buffers are available. Frame sequencing: transmits/receives frames sequentially. Frame acknowledgment: provides/expects frame acknowledgments. Detects and recovers from errors that occur in the physical layer by retransmitting non-acknowledged frames and handling duplicate frame receipt. Frame delimiting: creates and recognizes frame boundaries. Frame error checking: checks received frames for integrity. Media access management: determines when the node "has the right" to use the physical medium.

NETWORK LAYER The network layer controls the operation of the subnet, deciding which physical path the data should take based on network conditions, priority of service, and other factors. It provides: Routing: routes frames among networks.

Subnet traffic control: routers (network layer intermediate systems) can instruct a sending station to "throttle back" its frame transmission when the router's buffer fills up.

Frame fragmentation: if it determines that a downstream router's maximum transmission unit (MTU) size is less than the frame size, a router can fragment a frame for transmission and re-assembly at the destination station.

Logical-physical address mapping: translates logical addresses, or names, into physical addresses. Subnet usage accounting: has accounting functions to keep track of frames forwarded by subnet intermediate systems, to produce billing information.

Communications Subnet The network layer software must build headers so that the network layer software residing in the subnet intermediate systems can recognize them and use them to route data to the destination address.

This layer relieves the upper layers of the need to know anything about the data transmission and intermediate switching technologies used to connect systems. It establishes, maintains and terminates connections across the intervening communications facility (one or several intermediate systems in the communication subnet).

In the network layer and the layers below, peer protocols exist between a node and its immediate neighbor, but the neighbor may be a node through which data is routed, not the destination station. The source and destination stations may be separated by many intermediate systems.

TRANSPORT LAYER The transport layer ensures that messages are delivered error-free, in sequence, and with no losses or duplications. It relieves the higher layer protocols from any concern with the transfer of data between them and their peers.

The size and complexity of a transport protocol depends on the type of service it can get from the network layer. For a reliable network layer with virtual circuit capability, a minimal transport layer is required. If the network layer is unreliable and/or only supports datagrams, the transport protocol should include extensive error detection and recovery.

The transport layer provides: Message segmentation: accepts a message from the (session) layer above it, splits the message into smaller units (if not already small enough), and passes the smaller units down to the network layer. The transport layer at the destination station reassembles the message. Message acknowledgment: provides reliable end-to-end message delivery with acknowledgments.

Message traffic control: tells the transmitting station to "back-off" when no message buffers are available.

Session multiplexing: multiplexes several message streams, or sessions onto one logical link and keeps track of which messages belong to which sessions (see session layer).

Typically, the transport layer can accept relatively large messages, but there are strict message size limits imposed by the network (or lower) layer. Consequently, the transport layer must break up the messages into smaller units, or frames, prepending a header to each frame.

The transport layer header information must then include control information, such as message start and message end flags, to enable the transport layer on the other end to recognize message boundaries. In addition, if the lower layers do not maintain sequence, the transport header must contain sequence information to enable the transport layer on the receiving end to get the pieces back together in the right order before handing the received message up to the layer above. End-to-end layers Unlike the lower "subnet" layers whose protocol is between immediately adjacent nodes, the transport layer and the layers above are true "source to destination" or end-to-end layers, and are not concerned with the details of the underlying communications facility. Transport layer software (and software above it) on the source station carries on a conversation with similar software on the destination station by using message headers and control messages.

SESSION LAYER The session layer allows session establishment between processes running on different stations. It provides:

Session establishment, maintenance and termination: allows two application processes on

different machines to establish, use and terminate a connection, called a session. Session support: performs the functions that allow these processes to communicate over the

network, performing security, name recognition, logging, and so on.

PRESENTATION LAYER The presentation layer formats the data to be presented to the application layer. It can be viewed as the translator for the network. This layer may translate data from a format used by the application layer into a common format at the sending station, then translate the common format to a format known to the application layer at the receiving station.

The presentation layer provides:

Character code translation: for example, ASCII to EBCDIC. Data conversion: bit order, CR-CR/LF, integer-floating point, and so on.

Data compression: reduces the number of bits that need to be transmitted on the network. Data encryption: encrypt data for security purposes. For example, password encryption.

APPLICATION LAYER The application layer serves as the window for users and application processes to access network services. This layer contains a variety of commonly needed functions: Resource sharing and device redirection Remote file access Remote printer access Inter-process communication Network management Directory services Electronic messaging (such as mail) Network virtual terminals

Question 3 What are the different dimensions for determining Pure EC & EC? Answer 3 In traditional business, all the dimensions were physical whereas in pure E-Commerce the dimensions are all virtual. We will define each of the three stages (Using Electronic Media, Providing Services Online and E-Business Pure Play) and the processes needed to implement them. We will conclude with a view on the viability of the three-stage model and an outline of some of the upcoming developments in E-Business and the impact they may have for the small service providers. Stage 1:Use of electronic media for one or more business processes Stage 1 is the most likely choice for companies choosing to pursue an E-Business strategy. It allows them to spend a minimum of money and to begin to establish an E-Presence. In Stage 1, companies adopt electronic media as a means of doing one or more business processes. These electronic processes are not intended to replace an existing channel and in fact, are seen as a new channel, with new possibilities. These processes include one or more of the following: Adoption of email Creation of a brochure website Electronic banking Adoption of Email Email is considered to be the number one, 'killer application' of the Internet (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2002). The majority of large companies nowadays have email access in some form but the penetration rate is a lot lower in SMEs (Bank of Ireland, 2001). Nevertheless, it has become as ubiquitous as the telephone and the fax. Email provides a low cost, international, instantly deliverable messaging service and all for a fraction of the price of a local call or fax. An explanation of the workings of email is contained in Technolgical Section. Creation of a brochure website Although the World Wide Web has been in existence since the late 1980s, it is only in the last few years that it has entered popular culture. Website addresses are now quoted on most forms of advertisement from television

to radio to billboard and company stationery. It is important that companies who choose to create websites consider their strategy and ensure that they plan the design carefully Electronic Banking Many banks started allowing electronic banking via proprietary software a number of years ago. This was always difficult for the customer to set up and for the bank to support, as there were a number of variables at the customer end such as different operating systems, modems etc. In recent years the banks have moved away from proprietary software and towards the Internet. All the major banks now provide Electronic Banking and all that is required at the client end is a web browser. Stage 2:Providing one or more services online Although companies may choose to go straight to Stage 2, the vast majority of companies will have been at Stage 1 for some time first. This will have established the Internet as a vital part of their business infrastructure and they will have used it to market their business. However, 58% of SMEs surveyed create web pages in the first place because they believe their products / services are suitable for sale over the Internet (Golden and Griffen, 1999). By proceeding to Stage 2, they are showing that they are ready to start providing one or more of their services online. In addition, they may also choose to start providing some form of Customer Service or Support online. Finally, they may also be ready to commence some form of online collaboration with their business partners and suppliers. There follows an overview of the constituent parts of Phase 2: Online Sales Customer Relationship Management Collaboration Subscription Services Online Sales In order to be able to sell online, the Business must ensure that they purchase or develop some form of EBusiness solution. This solution will form part of the overall E-Business offering. There are off the shelf solutions available from ISPs but they have limited customisability. A rule of thumb is that the more customisation you want, the more expensive the solution is likely to be. Customer Relationship Management CRM on the web can take many forms. These include: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the website - common answers to common questions. Technical support wizards - work through a problem, step by step Bulletin boards - allow customers to post enquiries and support questions Chat rooms - real time chat with one of your support staff Video Conferencing - face to face support via the Internet Peer Communities - let your customers answer each other's questions. Collaboration

Collaborating with business partners via the web is also a possibility. For example, where services being offered for sale have a complimentary service available on a partners website, the site may be configured to allow this information to be brought to the notice of the user. Invoicing and accounts systems can be integrated with those of suppliers. Subscription Services Another form of delivering the service online is the whole area of subscription services. Rather than delivering the service to the customer, the service is delivered by allowing access to restricted content. Stage 3:E-Business Pure Play E-Business Pure Play is where the business has moved their service, process and delivery agent all to the virtual and away from the physical. This is a more achievable scenario for service companies than product sellers, where the majority of products are difficult if not impossible to digitise. There are significant advantages to be gained by moving to the Pure Play model There is no longer a need to have expensive real estate on the high street. The business can be relocated to an out of town Business or Retail Park. The transaction cost of dealing electronically with a customer is less than dealing with them either in person or by phone (Enterprise Ireland, 2001) Disintermediation: By using the web to sell your service, the middleman can be cut out and the cost savings passed onto the customer. Ryanair.com is an example of this. A more customised service can be provided through the use of subscription to the website. Cookies (see Technological Overview section) can be used to recognise returning visitors to the site. By contrast, some of the difficulties associated with implementing the Pure Play model include: Security Issues Tax and Legal Issues Standing out from the crowd - Marketing Understanding the technological issues

Dimensions of eCommerce Market Models Communication Protocols Product Ontologies Marketplace Visualizations Personalization Trust & Reputation Privacy & Security Payments & Transaction Processing

Intermediaries Legal Issues Question 5 Explain business environment impact model with diagram. Answer 5 A Business Environment Impact Model is useful in demonstrating how the business environmental stimuli contributes to the impacts on the business in the form of pressures, problems, and opportunities. Together with the business missions, goals, strategies, and plans, the business environment impacts are dealt with using existing processes with core competencies via determined response activities. These response activities take the form of problem solving, risk assessment, managing constraints, and gearing the team to take advantage of opportunities.

An agile business that is able to mobilise their core competencies in response to particular impacts, is one that can produce measurable improvements in performance, solutions to problems toward a goal of competitive advantage. Learning from the experience will provide data that can be fed into the business mission, goals, and strategies, closing the loop. The foundation of this capability, as seen in the above model, is eBusiness & IT infrastructure. The effective use of a mix of softwares and devices is required to effectively manage the maelstrom of stimuli and business objectives. The digital age is bringing to business a larger range of tools and technologies, and at a much lower cost than ever before. The business that can utilise cloud based storage and eBusiness applications, increase the ability of their staff to operate from remote and mobile locations, and that can leverage media that enables direct conversations with the consumers, suppliers, competitors and peers, is one that is best positioned to respond quickly to business environmental impacts. The more agile the business the faster it can turn a pressure into an opportunity, and carve a clear path through the jungle to competitive advantage.

Question 6 Answer 6 Flipkart.com Business Model - In the traditional way, Flipkart also started selling books online as many e-commerce startups have done, for the simple reason that supply chain dynamics and payment cycle suits best. Initially packing and delivering books using picklist-based systems and slowly optimizing to semi-automated sorting, packing and shipping. Scaling customers involves first finding them and improving conversion rates. The bottleneck in converting customers is online payment systems, which dont accept a third of payments. This results in losing 30% of hardearned customers. So Flipkart scaled the cash on delivery system to retain customers. Pricing right is also important. To scale sales, one method Flipkart bets is on increasing order value per customer by offering the customer more selection and relevant uptakes. Giving reason to come back is very important. The one fix Flipkart has done successfully was building its own delivery in 30 cities after finding that once an item leaves the warehouse, the affiliate courier companies did not deliver to customers. The pilot in Bangalore helped find repeat customers to the extent of 50%. By 2012, more categories will be added to Flipkart. A misstep that Flipkart took was betting on B2B sales for books. The assumption was that libraries and universities will buy in bulk. It turned out that the bulk buyers would dictate terms and so it quickly turned to scale B2C channel, which has proved to be successful. Scaling technology is also important to cater to growing demand. Making service reliable and predictable by increasing inventory fulfillment and doing last mile delivery has helped Flipkart. Measuring everything proved to be useful in analyzing bottlenecks. Using data to drive supply chain is also very essential. Hiring right people is the first step in scaling organizations. Hiring right does not solve the problem though but by enabling the employees by providing ownership and letting go helps create enthusiastic and willing people. Building trust is very important. One important mantra at Flipkart is allowing employees to experiment and let them learn from their mistakes. Thinking Big is very essential to scale ambition. Customer Value Proposition : -

Discounts Consumer can get to know if the books are available in stock or no Convenience shopping Free Home delivery on orders above Rs 100/-

Quick shopping

Revenue Model of Flipkart.com Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market which reads books is in abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the amount of money a customer has to spend to try out one's service for one time is very minimal. Flipkart sold only books for the first two years. Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e. they had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a book, they used to personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office and then courier the same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be the customer support numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide good service, focus on the website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to resolve any customer issues. Since there were not any established players in the market, this allowed them a lot of space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly. Flipkart started with consignment model as discussed above, since most of the customer issues like delivery delays etc. result from procurement model, the company started opening its own warehouses as it started getting more investments. The company opened its first warehouse in Bangalore and later on opened warehouses in Delhi, Kolkatta and Mumbai. Today the company works with more than 500 suppliers. As on date more than 80% orders of Flipkart are handled via warehouses which helps in quick and efficient service. A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from: Cell phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's, healthcare products, washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of its revenue from selling books online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys an online share of around 80%. Their website is great, easy to use, easy to browse through the products, add products to wishlist or to a cart, get product reviews and opinions, pre-order products, make payments using different methods, in short hassle- free and convenient. A very important point is that they introduced the option of cash on delivery and card on delivery. This way people demonstrated more confidence in buying products. An interesting fact, today Flipkart sells 20 products/min and have a massive customer base, still more than 60% of the Flipkart's customers use Cash on Delivery and card on delivery methods. This is because of two reasons, one is many people do not know how to make payments online. And secondly people do not have immense trust in e-commerce in India. Flipkart also provides a 30 day replacement guarantee on its products and EMI options to its customers for making payments. Flipkart's reason of success is that it has a great customer retention rate, it has around 15 lac individual customers and more than 70% customers are repeat customers i.e. they shop various times each year. The company targets to have a customer base of 1 crore by 2015. Competitors Naaptol.com Letsbuy.com Indiaplaza.com Tradus.com Infibeam.com Yebhi.com

Marketing Strategy Flipkart has been mostly marketed by word of mouth advertising. Customer satisfaction has been their best marketing medium. Flipkart very wisely used SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to have a far reach in the online world. Flipkart.com official Facebook page has close to 9 lac 'likes'. Flipkart recently launched a series of 3 ads with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries". Kids were used to create the adverts to send out the message - if a kid can do it, you can also do it. The message is very clear to make people more comfortable with Flipkart, to generate a great customer relationship and loyalty on the basis of great product prices and excellent customer service. All in all to create a great customer experience. Comparative Advantages Easy to use website Central warehousing Option given to customers to pay by cash on delivery EMI Options for making payment